J.R. to replace Joey Styles tonight and beyond

[Kyle]

Jim Ross Replacing Joey Styles As Raw Announcer
Submitted by Daniel Pena on Sunday, April 30, 2006 at 3:14 PM EST

Jim Ross will be replacing Joey Styles as the lead announcer at tonight's Backlash pay-per-view. A decision has been made for Jim Ross to become the lead announcer on Raw again, possibly as early as tomorrow night. If not tomorrow, then definitely in a few weeks.

Joey Styles will not be left stranded as he will more than likely be calling the new ECW show. It will likely debut in June.

source: Wrestling Observer


Not exactly a surprise. Good to see Joey will be back with ECW, though.

[Kugzilla]

I hope this means no more Coach in the booth

[CM Mark]

My first reaction to this news was FUCK! But then I thought about it for a while and realized that since the ECW is coming back, this is all for the best. Styles DID sign a 5 year deal last year don't forget, so he's not going anywhere for a while.

[FAngel]

My first reaction to this news was FUCK! But then I thought about it for a while and realized that since the ECW is coming back, this is all for the best. Styles DID sign a 5 year deal last year don't forget, so he's not going anywhere for a while.

My thoughts exactly. I really don't think there was any reason to remove JR in the first place - granted, it was a nice change of pace to hear Joey calling RVD matches on Monday nights, but if ECW is on its way back, this gives us the best of both worlds on commentary.

Now if we could only get rid of the Coach...

[Skeet Slambone]

If Vince didn't like Joey Styles that's fine, it's his company. But I hope he isn't making the announce team the scapegoat for the plummeting ratings. If anything they should remove Coach. Sure he gets heat, but it's not the right kind of heat. There is a difference between booing because of true heel heat and booing because you're pissed off you paid money and have to watch this douchebag.

[sknight]

If anything, they should hark back to the days when WWF was almost bankrupt in the ninties and Vince had to do something to return. The return was an announcement that they were going back to a more action oriented style of show. I think they get too wrapped up in the storylines and forget where they are.

Raw is insufferably bad now. The writing is awful and they drag on for way too long.

In my opinion, the way for them to go is the late ninties deal with there not being and true bad guys anymore and just factions and unpredictability, both dramatic and humorous. 3:16 was the master at this.